Soon, one of the last contents of Season 9 – the Empyrean Foundation – will start in Destiny 2. Official information has been scarce until now. Now Bungie has revealed how the event works. And leaks suggest – we are likely preparing for the return of the Trials.
What is the Empyrean Foundation all about? According to the Roadmap, Season 9 has 3 remaining contents:
- A new Sundial boss
- the Empyrean Foundation
- the Crimson Week
While the boss and the Valentine’s Day event Crimson Week are predictable for players, there has been no official information regarding the Empyrean Foundation – at least until today. The developers have finally introduced this event officially in their “This Week at Bungie” blog.
How the Empyrean Foundation works
What is the Empyrean Foundation actually? It is a kind of community event, a large-scale in-game donation campaign.
Players need to build a kind of beacon (probably a lighthouse) that will serve as a foundation for things Bungie has planned for the next season.
By the way, the Guardians have so far discovered these details about the event themselves: Empyrean Foundation – what we know about the last mystery of Season 9
Who can participate? All owners of Destiny 2 can participate in this event – regardless of optional additional content. This also includes players with the Free-to-Play version Destiny 2 New Light.
This is how it works: On February 4th, players will be asked by Saint-14 to participate in rebuilding the beacon/lighthouse. The focus of the event will be the Obelisk in the Tower. Make sure it is unlocked and ready to go, and start hoarding Fractaline.
The player community must then come together, with as many players contributing to the rebuilding as possible. The goal is to donate the material Polarized Fractaline at the Obelisk in the Tower. A single contribution to the Empyrean Foundation costs you 100 Fractaline.
The community event will have 7 levels. Each of these requires a progressively higher donated amount of Fractaline to advance to the next level. There will be a hologram at the Tower Obelisk that players can use to track the event’s progress in-game.
This is what Bungie has revealed so far regarding the requirements for the individual levels:
- Level 1: 400,000,000 donated Fractaline
- Level 2: 700,000,000 donated Fractaline
- Level 3: 1,200,000,000 donated Fractaline
- Level 4: ???
- Level 5: ???
- Level 6: ???
- Level 7: ???
Are there rewards? Besides the fact that we are apparently aiming for something big, a supreme reward, Bungie has also explained that your contribution to the reconstruction will be recognized with special rewards.
- For example, a contribution (100 Fractaline) at the Obelisk will provide 25% progress for each of your time-lost weapon bounties that are in your inventory at that time.
- Your Tower Obelisk will generate Fractaline for you each week based on its resonance strength. You can increase its resonance strength by upgrading other Obelisks.
- Players who donate more than 5,000 Fractaline before the end of Season 9 will receive a Triumph and a special emblem.
- In addition, every player will receive a shader if all 7 levels of the event are reached.
Here’s a look at the emblem:
What we know from leaks about the event
What are we actually building in this event? If we believe recent data mining results, we are apparently working on rebuilding the lighthouse on Mercury and thus the return of the Trials of Osiris in the upcoming Season 10.
Several entries in the data of Destiny 2, which made their way into the game with the recent Update 2.7.1, point in this direction. You can find precise details here: It looks like the Trials are finally returning with Season 10
Additionally, a mission has now (possibly unintentionally) appeared in the game for some Guardians, which is thought to bring the Trials back: Guardians encounter a secret mission – Does it bring us the Trials back?
However, Bungie does not want to reveal too much officially yet. In the TWaB blog (so far only in English), the studio refrains from using the common term Lighthouse and instead uses the term Beacon.
